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Category Archives: From the Darkness- Liam's Beastmen
From the Darkness: First blood
With the start of the first turn of the campaign, I have found myself well away from the parts of Albion I wanted! Having the misfortune of sitting at the wrong end of the table, out of favour with the … Continue reading
Posted in Army Blogs, Beastmen, Campaigns, From the Darkness- Liam's Beastmen, The Shrouded Isle, Warhammer Fantasy Tagged beastmen, beasts, bestigor, centigor, chaos, conversion, fantasy, gor, herd, mutants, regiments of renown, warband, warhammer, warhammer fantasy, warhammer painting, warhammer regiments of renown, warhound, whfb 2 Comments
From the Darkness: Beginnings
Ralgur stumbled drunkenly through the grime and filth of the Beastmen camp, slipping in the churned up earth around the stumps of torn up trees and between the flickering camp fires. Ugly faces looked up from half eaten forest creatures … Continue reading
Posted in Army Blogs, Beastmen, Campaigns, From the Darkness- Liam's Beastmen, Regiments of Renown, The Shrouded Isle, Warhammer Fantasy Tagged albion, beast, beastmen, bestigor, centigor, chaos, conversion, fantasy, gor, mutants, slow grow, warband, warhammer, warhammer fantasy, warhammer regiments of renown, warhammer slow grow, warhound, warped, whfb Leave a comment


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Human-Machine Interaction as a Neutral Base for a New Artistic and Creative Practice
Making art for me is the attempt to manifest one's own intimate biography through materials into the public and social discourse. This is not only about the form or the finished object, but also about the process, the perspective and perception of a structure— all of which is defined by our dynamic surroundings and contemplated through the tools, mediums and technology of the present time and local place.
Exploration and playfulness through art-related mediums in general, and painting in particular, have been part of my life and identity since early childhood. However, the fact that I grew up in a peripheral region of Israel in a Jewish Iraqi immigrant family set me at a distance from the urban art establishment; conversely, my aspirations to assimilate into that milieu contributed to the formation of a certain distance between myself and my own family's cultural heritage. My reflections on this situation are not, however, intended as an attempt to reconnect with, recover or reanimate a "lost culture" but rather as a means to investigate and question the hybrid, multifarious culture I am now operating in— the way I understand, process and practise the creation and generation of visual imagery, most notably through painting. When making a value judgment on the use of a medium, e.g., oil painting, print-making or drawing, I previously positioned myself in direct relation to "the" predecessors, who were by and large figures from the historical European art establishment. In my formative years, one of the most difficult tasks for me as a young female artist was to break free from the need to work in such recognizable and established forms in order to define neutral ground upon which I could operate and define myself as an individual artist.
Our present era can be distinguished from other historical periods by the sheer amount of data to which we have access — the availability of and rapidity with which information can travel and be translated across disciplines and between places. Physical spaces like museums and the concept of white cube galleries are today's standard spaces for presenting art and artifacts. Over the past decade, these increasingly standardized spaces have reinforced the tendency for artworks to be produced for no specific space, and to be meant for consumption by an unspecific audience — the work should be able to be displayed everywhere and be seen by everyone around the world. Furthermore, digital media in general and the Internet in particular are the most immediate and common ways to consume visual information. This has an enormous impact on the way we as individuals are able to perceive and appreciate, for example, imagery or artefacts. Within more traditional settings this can very often result in a decontextualized experience for the individual in the post-digital and post-Internet epoch.
This fragmentary, decontextualized experience is the space I investigate in my artistic process, through the use of data, whether it be a symbol, a reduced geometrical form or a code, derived from diverse and familiar or foreign sources.
Today there exists an ever-growing international community in artistic, academic and urban centres such as Berlin and Tel Aviv that is devoted to creating, modelling, reflecting upon and subsequently being remodeled by new constellations of culture. This corresponds to the dynamic transformation of our society through technology and media, not to mention the increasingly frequent movement of people and the mixture of cultures brought about by various forms of migration, both voluntary and forced. It is this contemporary mixed, fragmented and often contrasting society that I have long seen as my "home base", in part due to its familiarity, as I grew up in a country that was, at the time, predominantly inhabited by first- and second-generation immigrants — a country located in the Middle East whose inhabitants were educated largely on foreign and imported European cultural values. The rich potential of such cultural convergence offers infinite inspiration for me to investigate new channels of perception, creation and communication of visual imagery through collective as well as individual expression and experiences, using the physical mediums of print-making, drawing, painting and robotic painting.
During the past two years, my work has been focused on investigating methods to redefine one of the primitive forms of art — painting — into our current technology-based era. In collaboration with computer engineers, neuroscientists and machine engineers, I am exploring new methods for the application of paint on canvas, as well as for computer-assisted generation of physical images, and have been using computers and machines in the service of exploring new æsthetic avenues in painting. My work in this area aspires to constitute a novel venue for the establishment of new and innovative ground in contemporary artistic practices.
Working in a new artistic field, namely robotic painting, gave me the privilege to operate in a space that was refreshingly devoid of preconceived rule systems of "right" or "wrong" in terms of æsthetic values, methods of work or structural thoughts. Redefining boundaries and norms to create new forms and perspectives on artistic practices is, in my opinion, one of the main tasks with which artists are obliged to engage in the creation of contemporary and post-digital art.

subset: commoncrawl


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Thanks for the welcome! I hope your study of psychology has been and will continue to be fruitful.
Thanks! You mean the Arabic or my bio?
Sorry for late reply honestly I didn't see this at first
Walaikum salam
It's a song by RuPaul
Good I love comic panels.
Ohhhh cool, surprise reveal
I'm not good at riddles my son I'm afraid
Oh it's Euclid! No we didn't, we learned about Archimedes instead which was my first thought. Well it's obvious what kind of shapes my eyes see there but what does it stand for? Thanx boiiiii
What does your avatar mean?
Exits, pursued by a bear.
Socionics is a spook


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Hideaway Presents - Dusty and Shirley (Thursday)
A three night residency celebrating the iconic British Pop sound of Shirley Bassey and Dusty Springfield, brought to life by star vocalists David McAlmont and Horse and a stellar band led by our Musical Director Janette Mason.
David McAlmont
Possibly one of the greatest singers this country has ever produced, David McAlmont has collaborated with everyone from Bond composer David Arnold to Michael Nyman, Paul Weller and most famously with Bernard Butler producing the classic hit single Yes. McAlmont's music is pure emotion, drawing unique, soulful portraits from his own life and philosophies, all beautifully framed by the finest soul.
Horse is recognised as one of the UK's best vocalists and songwriters. With a successful career expanding over two decades, she has opened and toured with several international artists including Tina Turner, BB King, Bryan Ferry, Burt Bacharach. One of her best known songs Careful, was covered by Will Young.
Her first record deal was with EMI/Capitol circa 1990. In total, she has released nine albums including The Same Sky and God's Home Movie. Her current album HOME was released on her own label Randan Records.
In addition to writing and performing, Horse also produces work for other artists - sharing her immense expertise and experience.
Horse's unparalleled live performances showcase, not only her vocal range and the unique texture and tone that is virtually missing from today's music, but also her relationship to her fans.
Fresh from her award-winning performance at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, 2017 sees Horse appearing throughout the UK with stories from her life. It's an autobiographical play called 'Careful', written by Lynn Ferguson, directed by Maggie Kinloch and produced by the Gilded Balloon
What others say:
"Years of experience, technique, control and emotional history have ripened Horse's voice into a truly astonishing instrument" - The Scotsman
"A voice like folds of very rich chocolate" - Iain Banks
"Horse could sing a weather report and make it moving" - Leicester Mercury
"Her voice wraps us up like a great big duvet" - The Scotsman
"One of the finest singers in Britain" - Q Magazine


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Just because you've been there 12 days doesn't mean you've conquered all 12 steps.
Ted Williams, the golden-voiced homeless man from Ohio turned overnight YouTube star, has bailed on a private Texas rehab facility less than two weeks after seeking treatment for drug and alcohol abuse, E! News and TMZ reported.
"He did leave, so we can bring him here to L.A. to an outpatient program," Williams' manager Alfred Battle confirmed to E! on Tuesday. "We're in L.A. now."
U.S. & World
Williams had checked into the Origins Recovery Center after TV shrink Dr. Phil McGraw famously convinced him to put his voice over offers on hold.
The "Dr. Phil" heart-to-heart occurred just days after Williams was briefly detained for getting into a heated argument with one of his adult daughters.
Williams' family also appeared on "Dr. Phil" and said that despite Williams' sober claims he had been drinking daily.
"I believe rehab needs to be very private and very personal," McGraw said in offering Williams a shot at treatment. "There will be no cameras, there will be no media. It's just you focused on you. Fair enough?"
But according to Williams' manager, what followed wasn't as advertised.
"We didn't like the whole idea of filming [with a television crew] inside a rehab facility," Battle told E!. "We were all pretty upset about that. I mean, where's the anonymity?"
In a statement to the site, McGraw emphasized Williams' decision to seek treatment was "voluntary."
"We certainly hope that he continues his commitment to sobriety, and we will continue to help and support him in any way that we can," McGraw said. "We wish him well."


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Love Haruki Murakami's imaginative, surrealist tales? Popped into a frame this watercolour art print of his novel, 1Q84 is the perfect way to brighten up a literature geek's walls.
If a well-read woman is a dangerous creature, then let's get reading. The Book Nerd range celebrates woman who use their knowledge to make this a brighter world.


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Download ALLPlayer 8.6
Download ALLPlayer 8.6 for windows.ALLPlayer is a multimedia player t
ALLPlayer is a multimedia player that can play MKV files, DivX, Xvid, Flash, QuickTime, DVD, MP3, etc.. The application will automatically detect the codecs you need to play videos and download them if they are not on your PC. This software will allow you to adjust the speed of your subtitles. If you have two monitors, or a TV, you can view your movie on a screen (or monitor) and display the control panel on the other.
AllPlayer also has fully configurability and wealth of features that will be very much interesting to advanced users who want to control every aspect of their video reproduction process. For them AllPlayer has support for multi-monitor playback, remote control app for android, built-in multimedia file server, equalizer, free converter, support for all advanced audio formats and even ability to read media that is compressed inside RAR archives.
AllPlayer is using power of the DirectX rendering to provide best possible decoding of every movie you own. Users with eyesight disabilities can also use built-in speech synthesizer application that can dub all subtitles on your movies. With all these features implemented, AllPlayer is still completely free app that can be used without any restrictions.
Important Features:
- It supports DivX, XviD, MP3, and AVI, FLV, MP4, 3GP, MKV, M2TS, MPG, MPEG, RMVB, WMV, QuickTime, MOV, FLAC, APE, and many more less known formats can be played thanks to codecs downloaded by the program (only ALLPlayer needs to be installed).
- Free easy-to-use multimedia player.
- Support for Dolby Surround, SPDIF and 3D audio.
- Free simple video editor.
- Subtitles audio reader.
- Plays any video and audio format.
- RAR Player.
- AVI Doctor - repairs damaged avi files. It helps to watch a movie which is damaged, or a movie which is downloading.
- Free video menu creator.
- Plays any video and audio format.
- DVD support.
- Displays video on two monitors.
- Playlist and equalizer.
- Free DivX subtitles muxer.
- Video covers and movie information download.
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To create this optical microscope image, gold nanoshells were dispersed in a drop of water which then dried on a glass microscope slide. The colors are due to selective scattering of light by nanoscale particles. Gold Nanoshells have a variety of uses in nanotechnology, and especially in biomedical applications. Nanoshells like these may play important roles in new kinds of cancer treatments, disease detection, and imaging techniques. • SIZE: These gold nanoshells are each about 120 nm in diameter. • IMAGING TOOL: Optical microscope
Product category
Download link
Nano Content Map
Nanometer-sized things are very small, and often behave differently than larger things do.
Nanoscience, nanotechnology, and nanoengineering lead to new knowledge and innovations that weren't possible before.
Year created
Owning institution
Gary Koenig, University of Wisconsin-Madison - Attribution is required.
The creator listed here has made this image available to NISE Network partners for non-profit educational use only. Uses may include but are not limited to reproduction and distribution of copies, creation of derivative works, and combination with other assets to create exhibitions, programs, publications, research, and websites.


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After You Create a Scholarship
Above: Donors Lynda Humphrey and her daughter Cathy Padget meet three of their recipients at the 2012 Scholarship Luncheon.
We Show Our Appreciation in Several Ways
When you give a scholarship, you help to open the way to a bright new future for the next generation–and that is good for all of us.
- You get to name the scholarship, whether it is current use or endowed.
- You get to choose the criteria for the scholarship–students from a specific department, with a specific interest, from a geographic region, or something else.
- You'll receive information about your recipient, including a personal letter whenever possible. We tell your recipient about you so they know who to thank.
- You'll be invited each year to our annual scholarship luncheon held sometime in the fall, where often (though not always–students have busy schedules) you'll meet your recipient. If you or your student can't attend, we will sometimes be able to arrange another time for you to meet.
- With your permission, we will honor you online, in newsletters, or in other ways.
- We'll invite you to donor events like our big gala in the fall so we can thank you in person for your generosity to UIS students.
Your Recipient is Chosen
In general, for privately funded scholarships, the steps in the award process are these:
- The prospective recipient submits a scholarship application to UIS.
- The Office of Admissions and Financial Assistance reviews the application.
- If approved, the application then goes to an enrollment management committee or, as indicated, to the dean of the appropriate college, the Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs, or the Athletic Director.
- The application then goes to one of many committees, depending on the scholarship criteria.
- All chosen recipients are verified by the dean, vice chancellor, or director before going back to Financial Assistance for the actual award.
- The financial aid office chooses to award some scholarships by the semester. For these scholarships, recipients' records are reviewed each semester to make sure they still meet the scholarship criteria before receiving additional funding.
You Have a Chance to Meet Your Recipient
Correspondence from Recipients
When students receive their scholarships, we ask them to complete a brief questionnaire and write you a letter.
Please know this: we do not share your address information. All communication from students comes through our office, and we pass it on to you. If you prefer to keep your name private, we will not release that to the student recipient or to anyone else.
If you ever wish to contact your recipient one on one, you may choose to do that on your own. We've seen some close bonds develop between donors and recipients, with some donors even being invited to weddings down the road. But we discourage students contacting you directly. We prefer to leave that choice to you.
Often, the thanks students write are heartfelt, and so they should be. Many scholarship recipients remember their donors throughout their lives: at a time when they needed help the most, someone who didn't even know them stepped in to offer assistance. That's unforgettable to them.
Best of all, many follow your example, eventually giving a scholarship themselves.
Scholarship Luncheon
If we receive your scholarship gift by the early spring, we'll be able to award it before students leave for the summer or during the summer months.
Then, sometime in the fall, we invite all our scholarship donors and their recipients to a scholarship luncheon at UIS. Students who are able to come count it a privilege to thank their donors in person, and many donors come year after year to the event. Here's a video from the 2015 Scholarship Luncheon.
Some students are online so will not be able to attend the luncheon, but at your request, we can make other arrangements for you to talk with them.
(Of course, students do have busy schedules with many conflicts, so sometimes they can't come. If your recipient doesn't come, you'll still have a chance to meet other recipients, and sharing a meal with our UIS students is often a treat in itself.)
We'll keep you posted about this event, but remember you'll need to make your gift before the early spring.
We welcome our inquiries. Please use the contact information below.


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Original URL: https://www.theregister.com/2006/12/20/bofh_logic_bomb_charges/
Sysadmin 'tried to boobytrap' drug firm database
Prescription for disaster averted
Posted in The Channel, 20th December 2006 19:02 GMT
A former sys admin at Medco Health Solutions, one of the US's prescription drug management firms, has been charged over a failed attempt to to destroy its systems using a "logic bomb" computer virus.
Yung-Hsun Lin allegedly planted malware on Medco's systems in October 2003 because of concerns he might lose his job after the firm's spin-off from Merck. When the code failed to launch a year later because of coding flaw, Yung-Hsun (who survived a round of lay-offs) reprogrammed the malware to go off on his next birthday (April 23, 2005), according to a federal indictment unsealed in New Jersey this week. Fortunately the malware was discovered and defused before it could do any damage.
Prosecutors allege the logic bomb had the potential to destroy critical databases on more than 70 servers, including patient files listing adverse affects to particular drugs and billing information. "The potential damage to Medco and the patients and physicians served by the company cannot be understated," US Attorney Christopher Christie told AP. "A malicious program like this can bring a company's operations to a grinding halt and cause millions of dollars in damage from lost data, system downtime, recovery and repair."
Yung-Hsun, who was arrested by FBI officer at his New Jersey home on Tuesday morning, faces a court hearing on computer hacking and fraud offences on 3 January. ®


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Specializing in charms, gemstone pendants, druzy agate connectors, agates, beads, finished chains, jewelry findings and supplies.
We are open Monday thru Friday and closed weekends and all major holidays so that we can spend time together as a family. Orders are shipped Monday through Friday.
If you would like to stay up to date with the latest products from Millpond Jewelry Company, please follow us on Instagram, or like us on Facebook!! New photos are added of new merchandise regularly. We do seasonal sales occasionally, and all sales are done through coupon codes given on these sites!!


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About Us
Transition 101
Transition Towns
Knowledge Hub
Transition US has developed the following set of guidelines to help individuals and communities host the 2-day Transition LAUNCH training (formerly Training for Transition or T4T) course in their locale. This course provides instruction on how to set up a local Transition Initiative and empower your community to directly tackle the issues of energy depletion, climate change and economic instability, by rebuilding community resilience and self-reliance.
Transition LAUNCH Trainers are committed to providing the course in an efficient, cost effective manner with a low carbon footprint, and an affordable tuition for participants.
Transition LAUNCH is provided by professional trainers who:
These guidelines are designed to assist you in your decision making and planning process. If you decide to host an event please note that all official Transition LAUNCH courses are now offered through Transition US. To host a training please contact Carolyne at firstname.lastname@example.com.
Our training fee which is for two trainers for two days is is $1,800, or $450 per trainer per day, plus travel and accommodation expenses. It is encouraged that the trainers be able to stay in the homes of local residents to save cost.
To support building the Training Network and the evolution and growth of Transition Trainings, Transition US asks that following the training 10% of the fees collected for the training be sent to Transition US at: PO Box 917, Sebastopol, CA 95473.
Extra money remaining after the cost of the training course is covered and 10% of the fees are sent to Transition US can be used either to reimburse organizers for their time or go to support Transition efforts in the local community, to be determined by the host group.
We suggest tuition of between $150-$225 for the two day course. Given trainers fees, travel and accommodation expenses for the trainers, venue hire, coffee tea and incidental expenses, this should give you a break even point at around 20 particpants, although it could be less or more. The actual budget is determined by you, however. We want organizers to be able to cover their costs and make some extra that can go toward the organizers time and/or their local Transition project. We also highly encourage hosts to offer low cost seats to those who cannot afford it, and so make it accessible to all. The administration of such scholarships is up to you.
Some cities and towns have been able to fund their training sufficiently so that many participants were able to pay very little. As the Transition LAUNCH course focuses on a very successful technique for rebuilding local community, and restoring local resilience, community foundations and businesses are often interested in supporting it.
To encourage early registration, we advise a two tiered structure of registration, with a cost increase occurring about 10-14 days before the start of the course. As an example, course tuition can be set at $200 eight –twelve weeks before the course, and jump to $235 two weeks before its start.
If you are organizing the course, it is usually the case that you have people locally who want to attend. However, many people come through the US (and UK) websites, both nationally and internationally. A recommended number of attendees is between 20 and 40 participants.
To contact Transition US about hosting a training email Carolyne at email@example.com.
|Hosting Guidelines for LAUNCH TRAINING.pdf


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|2010-06-07, 04:00
|Link #1
Join Date: Jan 2004
Age: 38
Star Driver: Kagayaki no Takuto
Star Driver - Radiant Takuto
Original Work/Production: BONES
Director: Takuya Igarashi
Script: Yoji Enokido
Original Character Designs: Misa Mizuya and Hiroka Mizuya
Character Design/Chief Animation Director: Yoshiyuki Ito
Music: Satoru Kousaki
Official Site: http://www.star-driver.net/
Spoiler for scan:
BONES doing a new mecha anime! Ooooooh! I wonder if the staff indicates that this is a C Studio production, while B Studio is doing Gosick. That would be an odd.... swap. Star Driver's official site (which isn't open yet) is registered by Aniplex btw.
Last edited by duckroll; 2010-06-07 at 07:44.
|2010-06-07, 06:20
|Link #4
Licensed Hunter-a-holic
Join Date: Aug 2008
Location: United Kingdom
Age: 31
Hmm, staff looks promising, and the design for the mecha is very fresh, but there's this one thing that's bugging me
|2010-06-07, 06:36
|Link #5
Join Date: Nov 2003
Location: London, UK
Age: 36
Ooooh, Igarashi, Enokido and Ito working together again (with Ito doing the full animation director duties too - has he done a whole TV show before?). I hope Enokido can pull some decent (or at least weird) writing out the bag to go along with the standard Bones animation awesomeness.
Back in October duck reported that C Studio were supposed to be working on a Lucifer and Biscuit Hammer adaptation with Igarashi and Ito involved. I guess this was their project instead?
Looking forward to both this and Gosick.
|2010-06-07, 06:59
|Link #6
Join Date: Jan 2004
Age: 38
With A Studio and D Studio still busy with Heroman and FMA:B respectively, it looks likely that in the near future we're looking at Gosick from B Studio and Star Driver from C Studio.
|2010-06-07, 07:39
|Link #7
Join Date: Jan 2004
Age: 38
The site is UP.
I'm kinda scared now. The official site says this is BONES' Gakuen Robot Action series.
Yeah, Igarashi directing makes perfect sense now, and it's definitely C Studio. The question is whether this will be better than Geass. :/
Last edited by duckroll; 2010-06-07 at 07:50.
|2010-06-07, 08:19
|Link #11
Join Date: Jan 2004
Age: 38
|2010-06-07, 10:39
|Link #13
Senior Member
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: Italy
Age: 34
I, for one, think that the premises look really good. I love Igarashi's direction, especially combined with Enokido's writing. They worked together on Utena, and under Bones patronage on Ouran whose ep 13 was one of the best BONES' episode imho. It' s true that Igarashi also directed Soul Eater, but I think the main problem of that anime was that it followed the mediocre manga panel by panel almost till the end. While the source material was really bad, in terms of both animation and direction it was a solid production.
Here all depends on how good the original idea is, but to be honest I'm slightly confident it will be solid (damn! At least this must be good!).
Also, when I first looked at the mecha design I thought "Mamoru Nagano" which is a good thing, at least for me.
The only thing which left me a bit meh is the character design by two female designer. It could be too much bi-shonen alike.
|2010-06-07, 11:28
|Link #14
The Invincible Samurai
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: Gairyu Isle, Japan
Age: 34
I don't like the mecha design (what you can see of it) at all. The neck is way too long and the shape of it's face is meh. I don't care much for mecha. I'd rather they try some other genre. But I guess BONES is scared after how Ayakashi Ayashi failed.
|2010-06-07, 13:50
|Link #18
Join Date: Nov 2003
Location: London, UK
Age: 36
The image caption, for anyone who cares, means something like "A Gallant Entrance, A Galactic Hunk" (well, it's bishounen, you all know what I mean...). Appeal for all genders?
I love that mecha design, but I'm not a fan of the chunky sci-fi style mecha; I like them to look weird and organic/fantastical.
|bones, fabulous, shonen
|Thread Tools


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Tuesday, September 18, 2012
A recipe for Shakshuka (shakshouka), or eggs nested in spicy tomato sauce
You'll find the recipe for this wonderfully simple and flavoursome basic shakshouka at the end of this post. The colourful selection of hot peppers and tiny tomatoes is from our greenhouse.
I went to Israel back in June (see disclaimer at the end of this post), and fell in love with shakshuka (also spelled as shakshouka). Shakshuka is a northern African dish, originally from Tunesia or Algeria (depends who you ask from) that has become extremely popular in Israel over the last decades. We were told on several occasion that this is one of the two dishes that every Israeli man knows how to cook (I cannot recall what was the other one. Anyone?). I'm sure Israeli women are pretty good in making this dish as well, but yes, it's mainly men who boast who can make and eat the most fragrant and spicy shakshuka for breakfast :)
As with many traditional dishes, there are as many recipes around as there are cooks. The hugely popular Yotam Ottolenghi has a version in his second bestselling book, Plenty, using onions and plenty of bell peppers and you can see him making his version of shakshuka in this video recipe on Guardian's website. The guru of Jewish food, Claudia Roden, includes a recipe for shakshouka in her epic The Book of Jewish Food. She notes that
"This name us used for all kinds of dishes involving fried vegetables with eggs broken on top. A variety of vegetables, from potatoes and broad beans to artichoke hearts and courgettes, are used in Tunesia, where the dish originated, but it is the version with onions, peppers and tomatoes that has been adopted in Israel as a popular evening meal".
Claudia Roden also includes two variations in her book - one with spicy merquez sausage, the other with white Bulgarian cheese. In another excellent book, Tamarind and Saffron, Claudia Roden provides two recipes, one with the merquez sausage, the other one with peppers and garlic instead of onions, which also happens to be my Allium of choice for this recipe.
Janna Gur - a popular and well-known Israeli food writer whom we had a pleasure of meeting twice during our trip to Israel (she's standing on the far left on this photo) - has included a recipe and several variations of shakshuka in her beautiful The Book of New Israeli Food: A Culinary Journey. Janna claims that there are just three mandatory ingredients - tomatoes, hot sauce and eggs, and her basic recipe includes garlic, fresh and canned tomatoes, seasonings and eggs (note: NO peppers!). She also includes varieties with onions and peppers, with spicy merquez or small cocktail sausages, "the Israeli Army shakshuka" with canned corn, baked beans and sausages, as well as the mild tomatoless shakshuka with spinach and feta.
Last, but not least, there's a recipe for shakshuka in Rebbetzin G. H. Halpern's rather humorously written Confessions of a Kitchen Rebbetzin, using plenty of bell peppers (green, yellow and red), garlic cloves, eggs and spices. Rebbetzin goes as far as claiming that shakshouka is probably the dish Israelis enjoy eating most:
"What Israelis really dig is Shakshuka - a well seasoned North African dish of eggs in hot tomato sauce. The best and nicest (and most barbaric) way to eat it is straight from the pan, no utensils needed, by dipping thick chunks of simple bread."
Here are some of the shakshukas we enjoyed during our trip to Israel*. First off, the large Shakshuka at restaurant Cordelia (Chef Nir Zook), Old Jaffa, Israel. Challah bread (on the background) is perfect for scooping up the spicy tomato and egg dish:
Here's a "single portion" shakshuka at Manta Ray, Jaffa, Israel - about to be devoured by the colourful Ms Marmite Lover. Note the thin layers of grilled cheese on top of the shakshuka - wonderful, if not traditional, addition. Another fellow traveller, David Lebovitz, mentions shakshuka in his extensive post about Israeli breakfast.
As the eggs play such an important role in this dish, it's best to use the freshest organic/free-range eggs you can afford. Luckily, our backyard chicken keep us well stocked with eggs at the moment and of course, I used eggs from our own chicken. Here are our Orpington chickens, Buffy and Fluffy, earlier this year. They're excellent layers:
My recipe below is pretty basic - just garlic, tomatoes, seasonings and eggs. Although you can use fresh tomatoes during the summer time, I'll include canned tomatoes in the recipe - the fresh tomato season is coming quickly to an end here in Estonia, and you wouldn't want to use the flavourless winter supermarket tomatoes here. You'll find links to fancier and more elaborate versions below. Somehow I prefer this dish to be very basic.
As hinted above, you need a good bread - no pita bread (that's for eating hummus!), but a nice challah or a bloomer or a crusty country bread to scoop up all the shakshuka from the pan!
A simple shakshuka recipe
(Shakshuka ehk teravas tomatikastmes küpsetatud munad)
Serves one
1 Tbsp oil
1 large garlic clove, crushed
200 g chopped tomatoes
a generous pinch of chilli flakes or a scant teaspoon of harissa
a pinch of ground cumin
a pinch of ground caraway seeds
salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 eggs
Heat oil in a small frying pan over medium heat. Add garlic and fry gently, until garlic is golden.
Add the chopped tomatoes and the seasonings, stir, cover and let simmer for 10-15 minutes, until the tomato sauce is well flavoured and slightly thickened. Taste for seasonings - add more chilli or other spices, if necessary.
Using a spoon, make two dents into the tomato sauce and break an egg into each one. Sprinkle some salt on top and heat for another 5-6 minutes, until the egg white is thickened and the egg yolk is half-cooked (if you prefer your egg yolk fully cooked, cover the pan or transfer it under a hot grill for a few minutes.
Other foodbloggers writing about shakshouka (in English):
Kitchen Parade (September 2012; Alanna hosted me generously - and fed me, of course - in June 2008. Do check out her blog, if you're not yet familiar with it)
The Wednesday Chef (September 2006)
Smitten Kitchen (April 2010; Deb crumbles feta cheese on top of her shakshouka)
The Bojon Gourmet (October 2011)
The Leftover Queen (May 2012)
The Shiksha in the Kitchen (July 2010)
A Sweet Spoonful (March 2012, incl. fennel!)
Cook Republic (May 2011)
Other foodbloggers writing about shakshouka (in Estonian):
Ise tehtud. Hästi tehtud. (August 2011)
* Disclaimer: I spent six days in Israel in late June/early July as a guest of a non-profit social start-up Kinetis, more specifically their Vibe Israel programme. This particular trip hosted five international food bloggers and writers, introducing them to the multifaceted and pluralist Israeli culture and cuisine.
See other posts about my trip to Israel.
16 comments:
- Cat Lady said...
Hi Pille! This is my go to dish when there is nothing in the cupboard (although I prefer it with lots of peppers). Especially good, i think, served at the table so you can dip your bread into the leftover sauce.
- 12:26 pm, September 18, 2012
- johanna said...
nice! there is a favourite breakfast of chris' - they call it a tunisian breakfast, but by the sound of it, this is exactly the same! yum! can't wait to try it!
in mexico, we have a similar dish, called huevos perdidos - the eggs get "lost" in the tomato sauce... but we crack them in whole, rather than frying them. i have been on the lookout for one of those beautiful small copper pans that are just enough for one serving... no luck so far! sending hugs and kisses!
- 12:39 pm, September 18, 2012
I have a feeling the second dish is Israeli Salad- these are the two dishes my husband knows how to make (and the only two...!)
- 2:17 pm, September 18, 2012
- Alanna @ Kitchen Parade said...
Oh so funny that all these miles apart we both fell in love with the same dish at the same time! I still haven't made one with canned tomatoes, will try yours next! Very pretty, for sure!
- 9:45 pm, September 18, 2012
ok, I know you are fibbing about your shakshouka experience, because when we were in Israel, we tried to find the restaurant Cordelia and could not. Our GPS insisted we were standing in front of it. We were not. We wandered for a long time, peeked down alleys, streets, pathways. We almost broke into someone's office accidentally. It just was not there. If you say you were there, I must also ask if you've visited Atlantis, Brigadoon, or Oz. Harumph!
(We did have shakshouka in our hotel, though... no doubt toned down, spice-wise, for the tourists, but yum anyway!)
- 10:43 pm, September 18, 2012
- Murissa said...
David Rocco has a similar recipe he calls Eggs in Purgatory.
Looks delicious and thank you for the recipe. I just found your blog and everything looks so delicious.
The Wanderfull Traveler
- 8:20 pm, September 19, 2012
- Sarah said...
Awesome round up of shakshaka history and recipes. Loved that you added cumin, one of my favorite spices. I also add fresh coriander(cilantro)to my shakshuka and leave the chilis out so the kids can eat it. I read that shakshuka is famous in Goa of all places- introduced by the Israeli travelers there.
- 10:13 am, September 21, 2012
- Samantha said...
wow simply wow!!Looks bright, delicious and so very easy to make. Thanks you for the recipe.It's lovely!!
- 1:43 pm, September 21, 2012
Shakshouka is a an arab food ! Known from gulf to north africa. Israeli stole another thing to arabs. They are good in stealing and with PR.
- 2:47 pm, September 29, 2012
- Caroline said...
This is just the kind of recipe I was look for to cook this weekend lunch. An awesome looking dish. Thanks for sharing :)
- 5:00 pm, October 05, 2012
Dear "Anonymous" - Pille did acknowledge the origin of the dish in the first paragraph. Like many foods from other places, countries like the United States, Spain, Estonia, Israel, Japan, Morocco, etc..often serve foreign foods as well, even though they didn't originate in those particular countries. I don't know if that means making a dish elsewhere qualifies as "stealing" it...or just means that they like to eat it there.
- 3:35 pm, October 22, 2012
I love shakshuka and make it a bit different than you do, but yours sounds great too.
I wonder how "anonymous" can claim that the recipe is stolen.
Doesn't s/he know that Israelis are of all possible nationalities including Morroccans, Tunisians, Lybians, Egyptians, Yemenites, Algerians and so on and so forth?
Israelis don't need to steal anything. They brought everything with them from their old homes to their new home. Totally legit.
- 4:15 pm, October 22, 2012
- theundergroundrestaurant said...
Those are my breasts peeking jauntily over one of those plates! A fine pair even if I say so myself.
I blogged about a tofu shakshouka which is so nice, it's better than the egg version...
- 12:30 am, November 15, 2012
- Unknown said...
This is a Tunisian dish
- 6:32 pm, November 29, 2012
Libyan dish taken to israel by libyan jews
- 5:03 pm, January 06, 2013
Libyan noy israeli like calling pizza chinese
- 5:05 pm, January 06, 2013


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Interscope Records
From nine inch nails wiki
Interscope Records is the record label to which Nine Inch Nails have been signed to from 1992 to 2007 after a much-publicized feud with TVT Records, the first record label to sign the band. Ultimately TVT entered into a joint venture with Interscope Records that allowed Trent Reznor to begin releasing NIN albums on his own Nothing Records imprint, set up with his then manager, John Malm.
Interscope is owned by Universal Music Group, and operates as one third of UMG's Interscope-Geffen-A&M label group.
Universal Music Group & Year Zero Pricing
On May 13, 2007 Reznor made a post on his blog on the official Nine Inch Nails website condemning Universal Music Group for their pricing and distribution plans for Year Zero. The full text of that post is as follows:
"As the climate grows more and more desperate for record labels, their answer to their mostly self-inflicted wounds seems to be to screw the consumer over even more. A couple of examples that quickly come to mind:
Self Release?
After the above post, Reznor stated in an interview that he was interested in self-releasing future material:
"I have one record left that I owe a major label, then I will never be seen in a situation like this again. If I could do what I want right now, I would put out my next album, you could download it from my site at as high a bit-rate as you want, pay $4 through PayPal. Come see the show and buy a T-shirt if you like it. I would put out a nicely packaged merchandise piece, if you want to own a physical thing. And it would come out the day that it's done in the studio, not this 'Let's wait three months' bulls---."[1]
On October 8, 2007, Reznor announced that he was a free agent through a posting at both nin.com and The Spiral:
"Hello everyone. I've waited a LONG time to be able to make the following announcement: as of right now Nine Inch Nails is a totally free agent, free of any recording contract with any label. I have been under recording contracts for 18 years and have watched the business radically mutate from one thing to something inherently very different and it gives me great pleasure to be able to finally have a direct relationship with the audience as I see fit and appropriate. Look for some announcements in the near future regarding 2008. Exciting times, indeed."
In a posting on nin.com on 11/20/2007, Reznor explained that the launch of remix.nin.com that was supposed to accompany the release of Y34RZ3R0R3M1X3D and all Year Zero multitracks had been delayed due to a legal hitch caused by Universal:
"My former record company and current owner of all these master files, Universal, is currently involved in a lawsuit with other media titans Google (YouTube) and News Corp (MySpace). Universal is contending that these sites do not have what is referred to as "safe harbor" under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, and therefore are in copyright violation because users have uploaded music and video content that is owned by Universal. Universal feels that if they host our remix site, they will be opening themselves up to the accusation that they are sponsoring the same technical violation of copyright they are suing these companies for. Their premise is that if any fan decides to remix one of my masters with material Universal doesn't own – a "mash-up", a sample, whatever – and upload it to the site, there is no safe harbor under the DMCA (according to Universal) and they will be doing exactly what MySpace and YouTube are doing. This behavior may get hauled out in court and impact their lawsuit. Because of this they no longer will host our remix site, and are insisting that Nine Inch Nails host it. In exchange for this they will continue to let me upload my Universal masters and make them available to fans, BUT shift the liability of hosting them to me. Part of the arrangement is having user licenses that the fans sign (not unlike those on MySpace or You Tube) saying they will not use unauthorized materials. If they WERE to do such a thing, everybody sues everybody and the world abruptly ends.
The full post can be read here
3D-Tour DVD
In late 2008 Trent Reznor revealed he was planning to film the last handful of shows in 3D for a DVD and theatrical release with director James Cameron. He also revealed that due to issues with funding and producing he was unable to fit filming into the schedule and dates at such short notice, after recovering the project and finding alternate support. Although Interscope was not mentioned in the nin.com blog revealing this, it is widely accepted that the company is that referred to it holds the rights to the majority of Nine Inch Nails material and has an almost infamous reputation with fans for refusing and delaying projects in the past, such as the launch of remix.nin.com.
"File this one under lost opportunities.
External Links


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Training Leaders in Christian Virtue
Franciscan University of Steubenville has launched a new leadership institute.
Every day in Congress, Rep. Jeff Fortenberry, R-Neb., sees a complex array of problems that affect civic institutions, families and the culture. It's for that reason that he believes it is imperative that future leaders be well prepared. And it's why the alumnus of Franciscan University in Steubenville, Ohio, gave a ringing endorsement to his alma mater's Center for Leadership.
Founded last summer, the center "roots young men and women in virtue, forms them as leaders, and grounds them in sound philosophical thought," Fortenberry said. "I know this university provides students with outstanding intellectual and spiritual formation. Its new Center for Leadership will further equip students to take their places as the next generation of leaders for America. That's what our country needs."
The center seeks to form highly effective Christian leaders in every area of society and fill what David Schmiesing, its director, said is a "desperate need for authentic leadership."
Many leaders in the world, he said, lack either character or competence or both.
"This is our most explicit and focused effort yet to train leaders for the Church and world," said Schmiesing, who is also vice president of student life.
The idea for the Center for Leadership was percolating for awhile.
"Years ago," Schmiesing explained, "Father Michael Scanlan (then the university's president) had asked the question, 'If Catholic students like those at Franciscan University don't produce leaders for tomorrow, who will?' We're trying to play our part answering that question and forming those leaders."
According to Schmiesing, Franciscan was training leaders in the Church and world who have had an impact out of proportion to the school's relatively small size. But it was time to build on that foundation.
Past programs were limited to a weekend or a semester at most. Schmiesing believed a completely effective program had to run four years.
"Our dream in [the Office of] Student Life to have a more intentional and sustained leadership program intersected with the desire of some university donors and benefactors with that same idea," he noted. As a result, a small number of donors looking at the world and our nation in particular who shared that vision of developing leaders gave gifts to fund this new Center for Leadership Program.
These gifts are aimed principally as scholarships for students chosen for the leadership program.
This first select group to inaugurate the Center for Leadership consists of 30 freshmen from an incoming class of 550. The admissions staff invited students to apply who appeared to have great leadership potential based on applications and personal interviews. This initial group represents a cross-section of students from 15 majors.
Schmiesing pointed out another cohort numbering 20 freshmen will be added in the spring. The goal is to have 50 freshmen in the program by the end of this academic year. They will continue in the leadership program through the end of senior year; new groups will be added with each incoming freshman class.
Christian Leaders
There is an unmistakable focus on how Franciscan can better prepare leaders for secular pursuits. Students will learn how to bring Christian leadership to bear on media, politics, sports, business, health care, education — in short, every occupation and every realm of culture proper to Christian laity.
According to the director, the center's program will promote authentic Catholic social teaching as well as an understanding of the principles of America's founding: "The goal is toward a healthy patriotism with gratitude for all the gifts we enjoy in this country, but also with the idea to build upon what's good in our nation and work to improve where we need to improve."
Already, leadership students have gotten key inspiration reading, studying and discussing Blessed John Paul II's 1985 apostolic letter Dilecti Amici (To the Youth of the World on the Occasion of International Youth Year).
"He talked a lot about how the youth need to speak out and accept being leaders," said freshman Brian Kirby. "That was powerful for me, coming from John Paul. One line particularly pointed out how youth need to stand up and live our faith in today's society."
Kirby noted this particular line affecting him: "You become rooted in that which each of you is, in order to become that which you must become: for yourself — for other people — for God."
Kirby, who was active in high school leadership roles, including with Eagle Scouts, serving on his parish council and as a youth director, sees the program as a great way to strengthen his leadership abilities.
JPII and Stephen Covey
One major way the center looks to make strong Christian leaders and build upon students' strengths is to focus on a weekly meeting with presentations and discussion of readings.
This semester focuses on two readings and themes that stress the idea of the vocation of the laity. The primary reading is Dilecti Amici because it "speaks well to the young people and addresses the excitement of being young and the responsibility they have accordingly," Schmiesing said.
The second reading is Stephen Covey's Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, examining and teaching the virtues and character traits necessary for leadership.
In addition to the weekly meetings, students are required to apply what they learn. They must get involved with clubs and have a student work position and a student leadership role — all on campus.
The center's mentorship component will gradually require students to expand their circle of mentorship from an academic advisor and a Center for Leadership advisor to eventually include university alumni working in the world.
Another resource for the program is the university's distinguished speakers series with the likes of Virtuous Leadership author Alexandre Havard and Acton Institute president Father Robert Sirico, who is on the center's board of advisors.
Father Sirico talked about character, virtue, competence and vocation to serve as leaders.
"We have a chance to speak with and meet with different distinguished speakers who have been all around the world studying incredible things," said leadership student Camille Mica. "Getting the opportunity to talk with these speakers with such incredible credentials, I've learned a lot from them and been very encouraged and strengthened by their words and message and example."
Though the leadership center will have a global outlook, Schmiesing noted that, ultimately, all leadership is local.
"If Catholic leaders don't lead in their families, then all the other leadership is not going to be effective," he said. "Leadership in the family is essential and applies to men and women. We're teaching students in the center the skills, knowledge, virtues that will help them to be more effective in their families and then flow out to the churches, then to occupations."
How are students in the program reacting? Camille Mica sums it up best: "The only thing I tell the director is: I wish we could have it every single day. No way could I have this kind of experience in Christ-centered leadership elsewhere."
Register staff writer Joseph Pronechen is based in Trumbull, Connecticut.
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- January 15-28, 2012


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New Line of Servo PressesMay 1, 2011
Stamtec, Inc., Manchester, TN, introduces its new CF1 series of servo presses, replacing the standard electric motor, flywheel and clutch/brake with a high-torque, low-RPM servo motor. Proprietary press controls designed specifically for the servo presses achieve a variety of stroke-length and slide-movement profiles, while supplying full working-energy capacity even at low speeds. This allows the user to perform a variety of jobs in one press, such as drawing, restrike and warm forming, and easily adapt to automation and feed applications. In addition, user-defined motion curves allow as many as 20 various segments in a cycle curve, defined by slide position, speed, and pause duration parameters.Stamtec: 931/393-5050; www.stamtec.com
View Glossary of Metalforming Terms
See also: Stamtec, Inc.
Technologies: Stamping Presses


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In the first two weeks of conservatorship of the AutoWeek semi-long-term Nissan Leaf electric car, colleague Barry Winfield and I have put 287 miles on it.
What does everybody want to know? The range. How far will it go on a charge? So far it has returned between 62 miles and 98 miles of range from its 24-kilowatt-hour lithium-ion battery pack. Those are extrapolated figures, gleaned from taking the range achieved on a given mileage and comparing that with how far it would have gone had we driven at the same rate until we completely drained the battery.
Speaking of which, I finally did that. Yesterday, through no one's fault but my own, the Leaf battery was all but empty and had to be driven 23 miles home on a flatbed truck.
Let me explain.
To get Winfield seat time in the Leaf and me some seat time in the Smart electric car that Winfield had, we had to swap cars. You don't need to know all the details, but suffice to say that the Leaf started out its day with a full charge and 75 miles to go. That's at least theoretically within the Leaf's posted 100-mile range, right?
By the time I picked the Leaf up from Barry, it had gone seven miles and had 73 miles remaining range indicated. I didn't really pay attention to that. My fatal flaw that day was that I hadn't bothered to consider range at all. I just assumed all these distances were within the Leaf's capability. Had I checked I would have realized I was doomed before I pulled out of the carport.
If you have an electric car, you have to plan out longer trips on Mapquest or Google Maps to make sure they're doable. It's math so simple even I could do it. But didn't.
The next fatal flaw was that the 75 miles would include several quarter-miles of vehicle testing in the big parking lot at the Fairplex in Pomona, which, it turns out, ate a lot more electricity than I thought it would.
The rest of the day's drive before and after the vehicle testing at the Fairplex was freeway hauling, accomplished in the slow lane at 55 mph drafting semis.
At a stop at Cal Poly Pomona to meet their capable Formula SAE race team (another story coming up on that soon), it first hit me that I was well and truly doomed. Even though the young engineers had 220 volts--heck, they had 480 volts in their well-outfitted race shop--there was no way to get any of it into the Leaf. The Leaf needs an SAE J1772 plug, see?
In the trunk of every Leaf there is an emergency "Portable Trickle Charge Cable" with a 110-volt plug on one end and a J1772 plug on the other. The idea is you can plug it in anywhere and eventually have enough juice to get home. Unfortunately, it is outfitted with fuses that blow at more than 12 amps, as I would find out later in the day.
I was eventually able to plug into 110 volts at Cal Poly Pomona, lined up next to a Miles Electric van (anybody remember Miles Electric? Looking forward to driving the Coda sedan later this year). As anyone who has ever plugged in an EV knows, recharging with 110 volts is only slightly faster than praying electrons get into the battery through osmosis. Almost three hours of 110-volt charging yielded only four more miles range. It was now at 33 miles to empty. As I wrote in my notes right then, "I'm doomed."
Nonetheless, I carried on. I got to the Fairplex to run the usual AutoWeek tests on the Leaf and took big bites of battery with every run. One quarter-mile ate about a mile or two of range, at least according to the increasingly whacky range readout on the dash. I was at 29 miles of remaining range when I arrived in Pomona and after two quarter-miles and six slalom runs, I was at nine miles and I still had to do the skid pad.
How'd it do in testing? Better than the Mitsubishi i-MiEV and way, way better than the Smart ED, but nowhere near as good as a Tesla Roadster.
The quarter-mile came up in 17.1 seconds at 79.4 mph and 0 to 60 mph took 9.2 seconds. The i-MiEV was 11-something to 60 and the Smart ED took--this is not a typo--22.3 seconds. Of course, the Tesla Roadster takes just 3.7 seconds to 60, according to Tesla.
Through the slalom and around the skid pad the Leaf was nowhere near what you'd call a handler. Slalom speed was 40 mph, which is better than large pickup trucks and some moving vans. Lateral g's measured just 0.77. So it stayed out of trouble. If you want an electric car that handles like a sports car, buy a Tesla or a Venturi.
So anyway, after doing the last lap on the skid pad the Leaf was showing no range at all, and automatic audible voices that had been saying, "Battery is low," started saying, "Battery is extremely low." At this point, the navigation screen started offering to look up the nearest electric-vehicle charging station for me. Problem was, almost all those charging stations have outdated AVCON and SPI connectors put in 20 years ago to satisfy a delusional California Air Resources Board. Neither AVCON nor SPI would do me any good. I think all we EV drivers need are standard 220-volt conductive plugs just like dryers and stoves have, nothing fancy and expensive. All the rest of that J1772, NEC 625 stuff is overkill.
But back to the story.
So with no battery and no plugs many drivers would have given up and called AAA at this point. Not me. Where's the story in that?
I decided to go down swinging and set out for what was supposed to be some kind of EV recharging station on Southern California Edison property a few miles down Arrow Highway. I would make it or (the battery would) die trying.
On my way I remembered an auto electric shop in the neighborhood I'd dealt with before and pulled in there instead. They were nice people and pulled out converter plug after converter plug and finally jury-rigged a connection that would go from a 50-amp, 220-volt outlet into the 110-volt plug on one end of the "Portable Trickle Charge Cable." None of us bothered to read the label on the mysterious box incorporated into that cable that said "12A." So with 38 amps more than it was designed for, the cable immediately fried, eliminating any chance of recharging unless angels dropped from the ceiling with a 480-volt Aerovironment Level III charger. Which didn't happen.
That's when I called AAA.
A few minutes later a brand-new Hino diesel flatbed from Sanders Towing in San Dimas pulled up and gave me and the Leaf a ride home.
The lesson here? Just as you can't or shouldn't bring a knife to a gunfight, don't try to go farther than your EV can go on a charge. At least unless you are sure there's a 240-volt charger somewhere on your route with a J1772 plug.
Please keep in mind that this incident was all my fault. Had I planned the day out better, with the Leaf leaving from my house--which is closer to Pomona--instead of Winfield's house, none of this would have happened. But then neither would I have had a chance to hang out with all the nice electricians nor met the friendly tow-truck driver from Sander's. There is something to be said for car troubles, even self-inflicted ones. You meet nice people and are reminded that given the opportunity, most people will help you out if they can.
But it's also good to add up all the miles before you go.


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Food For Your GSD
When it comes to keeping your GSD happy and healthy, food obviously tops the list of concerned. Then exercise. Yes… I have always tried to strike a balance between the food and exercises for my shepherds. I have rarely purchased commercial dog foods for them, but have been able to keep my shepherds as healthy as a few others. In my previous post: Diet Management For German Shepherd Puppies I have talked in depth about what your puppy's food should contain.
Keeping your GSD in perfect health is no strange formula, but a passion to see them moving around healthy. Its not just about feeding them good quality food in huge volume but, feeding them right kind of food in right proportion with the calorie they loose.
It is a myth that German Shepherds must be given meat everyday. Remember that dogs are not lions… they are not carnivorous animals. They are omnivorous creatures just like you and me. The major difference is that our dogs are less capable to digest complex food. Therefore it is recommended providing your German Shepherds with food that they can easily digest.
Myth about Meet-full diet for your dog
You may be wondering, if wolves are ancestors of today's canines, and if wolves in the wild live mostly on meat, then why not giving Rex a diet filled with meat? Do they really need greens added to their diet at all?
Well there are two schools of thoughts. (i) the first group for instance, AKC and experts at Hills believe the fruits and veggies should be included in your dogs food - either as treat or in the main diet. Wolves in the wild attack chiefly herbivorous animals, and they consume the stomach contents and the intestines of those animals that mainly contain vegetable matter.
(ii) There is one second group, like RawFed that considers dog as purely carnivores. According to these people, based on the dogs' dental configuration, physiology and internal and external anatomy they are not omnivores.
However, with all supportive documentations and research works, The National Research Council of the National Academies and some larger dog food companies consider dogs as omnivores.
Therefore, when it comes to food for your German Shepherd, it has to be a right mix of meet, fruits and veggies. However, not all food that are good for humans are good for your shepherds. Here's a read on some of the human foods that should be added to your shepherd's diet.
If you are more into home made food for your GSD that's quiet appreciable, but the food should be well balanced, nutritious and can provide them with adequate amount of energy. Failing to provide your GSD with meat for a couple of days should not be a matter of concern. Meat is one of the essential components, but not the only essential component of his food. His food must contain some green, ground up fruits, eggs, yogurt and cottage cheese. Lentil, apple gourd or ridge gourd, pumpkin, sweet potatoes, a few pieces of sweet potatoes, turmeric, and a few drops of vegetable oil, chicken/turkey and rice can be mixed together and boiled together for a few minutes until they are properly cooked.
Some veggies you should consider in your GSD's diet
Sweet Potato: Low in fat and contain vitamin B6, vitamin C, and manganese. Sweet potatoes are rich in the powerful antioxidant beta-carotene
Lentil: Although some of the legumes can be harmful to dogs, but thankfully lentil does not fall under this category. Homemade lentil soup is a great addition to your GSD's diet. It helps alkalize your shepherd's body by balancing its pH level, manage blood sugar level, manage cholesterol level, maintains heart health, maintains digestive health by promoting growth of healthy microflora, helps you maintain your dog's weight, provides energy and improves immunity by preventing deficiencies in critical minerals like iron, folate, zinc and manganese.
Ridge gourd (also known as Sponge Gourd): Lentil is rich in dietary fiber and enriched with all the vital elements that include Vit-C, Zinc, Iron, Riboflavin, Magnesium, Thiamin and traces of another minerals. It is low in saturated fat, cholesterol and calories that aids in weight loss.
Indian Round Gourd / Apple Gourd: Apple gourd is a rich natural source of Vitamin A, Calcium, Vitamin C, Iron, and Potassium
Pumpkin: The potassium and vitamin C content in pumpkin support your dog's heart health. Pumpkin is a rich source beta-carotene, which is a powerful antioxidant. Pumpkin is high in dietary fiber which helps bowel regulations - whether the dog has diarrhea or constipation.
Asparagus: Properly boiled into soft stalks, the asparagus, as is packed with vitamins and minerals, can be a good addition to your dog's diet a few days a week. It is rich in vitamin K, folate, copper, selenium, vitamin A, vitamin B1, vitamin B2, vitamin B3, vitamin B6, vitamin C, and vitamin E. It is also a good source of manganese, phosphorus, potassium, choline, zinc, iron, protein, and pantothenic acid. NOTE: Asparagus fern (plant part) is toxic for dogs.
Brussel sprouts: Brussel sprouts are good for your German Shepherds as long as they are fed in moderate amounts. sprouts are rich in vitamin A, Vitamin B1, Vitamin B6 and vitamin C. It is also rich in antioxidants that helps reduce inflammation and improve blood circulation. Please note that too much of sprouts in your dog's diet is not recommended. Sprouts contain a high level of isothiocyanate, a substance that improves the ability of the intestinal muscle's to push food and waste through the gastrointestinal tract. This builds up excess bacterium, which forms gas.
Spinach: spinach is an immune system booster, restoring energy and vitality. Spinach in your dogs diet in moderate amount once or twice a week may be a great idea. It prevents cancer and is good for the his heart. Spinach is a natural source of vitamin A, vitamin B, vitamin C and vitamin K. It is also a great source of natural calcium, iron, potassium, fiber, manganese and folate.
It is not recommended to shift from your food to this recipe all at once. But once they are habituated with this kind of foods you can offer them this occasionally.
A good diet for your German Shepherd can be easily made at home. You can keep your dog healthy, fit and active with easy to make homemade recipe. All you need to do is to make a routine of what to give today. Not all veggies should be given everyday. Choose as per your will and as per the guide above. Just make sure what you want to put in Rex's feed bowl. Chop the veggies properly, put in fresh meat (chicken/turkey/beef/lamb), put in rice and lentil, add a pinch of turmeric, boil them properly together until they are well cooked. Bring it to room temperature and feed Rex fresh.


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Consumer Alert
Alaska Joins Settlement with Movie Gallery, Inc.
Alaska, with 49 other state attorneys general and the District of Columbia, joined a settlement resolving allegations of unfair debt collection practices for Hollywood Video and Movie Gallery customer accounts. Movie Gallery, which owned Hollywood Video, operated seven stores in Alaska before filing for bankruptcy in 2010.
The agreement with Movie Gallery, Inc.'s bankruptcy trustee gives immediate relief to customers who may have had problems with the now-defunct movie rental company. Many customers complained that a third-party collection agent reported negative credit information to credit bureaus about alleged debts owed to Movie Gallery without giving consumers prior notice or opportunity for challenge. This resulted in alleged credit rating damage to some customers, many of whom did not realize they had credit damage until they were denied credit or were given limited credit.
The agreement calls for the company to rescind all previously filed negative credit reports, prohibits reporting of non-payment of alleged debts to any credit reporting agencies, prohibits interest from accruing on alleged debts and prohibits collection fees on future collections.
The settlement applies only to Movie Gallery and Hollywood Video but not to any third party debt collectors.
Consumers can file complaints about unfair debt collection practices or other unfair trade practices with the Consumer Protection Unit of the Alaska Attorney General's Office.
Consumer Protection Unit
May 2011


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Bar Bounya
Rating: 2 out of 4
234 Laurier Ave. W. (corner Jeanne Mance St.)
Phone: 514-439-8858
Open: Tuesday to Saturday, 5 p.m. to midnight
Website: www.barbounya.com
Licensed: Yes
Credit cards: All major
Wheelchair access: No
Parking: On the street
Vegetarian friendly: Yes
Reservations: Recommended
Price range: Tapas-sized plates $7-$16. Desserts $8-$9.
MONTREAL - "Wouldn't you love to open a restaurant?" is a question I'm asked often, and my answer is always the same: no. It's a myth to believe running a restaurant involves anything other than hard work, real talent, vision and a ton of luck. I'm constantly floored when reading about lottery winners who drop the day job in say manufacturing or mortgages to open a brasserie. Inevitably they lose their shirt because though it is a fantasy of many, running a restaurant is an undertaking mastered by few.
I thought a lot about the challenges of restaurant ownership when recently dining at Bar Bounya. Owned by the dynamic duo of restaurateur Edward Zaki of Confusion Tapas and Chez Victoire fame and chef Fisun Ercan of Verdun's Su fame, Bar Bounya was opened in late June in the space that formerly housed the Italian restaurant Salute. The concept is part Zaki's tapas restaurant and part Ercan's Turkish restaurant, with the menu offering about two dozen Turkish meze ideal for sharing.
It's funny how the meze/tapas/small plate style of service was until quite recently categorized as a trend, and yet now it's so prevalent (and let's face facts, enjoyable) that I have no doubt it's here to stay. Bar Bounya's dishes are in Ercan's hands, so the cuisine is Turkish. Born in Izmir, Turkey, Ercan grew up on a mandarin and olive farm, and after studying cooking at Lasalle College opened her restaurant, Su, in 2005. Reviewed in these pages this past April, Su impressed on so many levels. Serving upscale Mediterranean food too rarely seen on our dining scene, Ercan wows us with little-known-to-Montrealers Turkish fare rich in yogurt, olive oil, grilled meats, eggplant, peppers, garlic, nuts, beans, fruit, herbs and spices. I swooned over her dishes at Su and was eager for more, especially in this format where I could order with abandon. I grabbed three friends and we headed to Laurier W.
First off, Bar Bounya's decor is wonderful. High ceilings, a huge bar, communal tables, multi-coloured chairs, exposed brick, funky chandeliers … it's all immensely appealing in that high-end casual kind of way. There's an open kitchen in the back of the room where I see Ercan cooking. Zaki is also present, a table away from me scanning his laptop. Nice to see both owners on site, and though the room is quite sparsely populated on this Tuesday night, the restaurant has only been open a month and it seems like half the city is on holiday. The room is dark, yet not egregiously so, and the background music is played at the perfect pitch. It's obvious there's experience behind this place, everything thus far is perfect.
Our waitress is another asset to this establishment. Assertive without being pushy, she recommends we order two to three dishes each and points out a few of her favourites. Like at Su and Chez Victoire, the wine list here is superb. It's not long, mind you, but filled with interesting, well-chosen bottles (mostly private imports) well suited to this aromatic cuisine. We opt for a Greek rosé (Naoussa 2012, Domaine Thymiopoulos, $42), which is also available in its excellent red incarnation by the glass at $9.
As for the food, there are highs and lows, which is to be expected with a restaurant this fresh out of the gates. After just a few bites, I'm feeling that the dishes are very well-executed and precise, but there's a lack of pizzazz — call it the oomph factor — that little extra something that makes me go wow.
We start with foie gras. This version is lightly smoked and served with a quenelle of fig purée and a dribble of hazelnut sauce. It's good, but a bit creamy and rich for a hot summer's night. I far prefer the eggplant caviar, a luscious rendition of the classic served simply with toast points. I'd say it's a must if you dine here, especially if you enjoy it side by side with the Kamouraska lamb tartare, also ideal for spreading, gently spiced and served with a pile of bracing bitter greens that offset the rich meat so perfectly.
Fried zucchini flowers stuffed with ricotta and served on a yogurt sauce offer a welcome taste of summer, as does the plate of summer vegetables (cherry tomatoes, grilled eggplant, asparagus, carrot strips) laced with garlic-infused yogurt cream, which I'm sure will fare better in August when local vegetables will be at their peak.
The meat offerings are the strongest, especially the fantastic grilled quail that's highly spiced (not "hot" but intricately layered with herbs and spices), succulent and served simply on a bed of sautéed spinach. For something completely different, don't miss the braised pig's neck which is shredded and placed atop a bowl of "moghrabieh," a salad of Lebanese origin made with large-grained couscous, chickpeas, onions, spices (cinnamon, allspice) and olive oil. The North American palate is more used to herbs than spices, and a dish like this provides the ideal mix of gentle spice flavours for a fine introduction to Ercan's cuisine.
And yet despite my enthusiasm, the few letdowns were big. The restaurant's signature dish, "barbounya," includes a red snapper served in four pieces, with both the head and tail gracing the plate alongside two meaty filets. Accompaniments include a relish of olives, and a purée of lima beans and pistachios. I found the fish dry and not all that tasty, and the sides are good but also dry. I couldn't help but crave a little sauce here, something to tie it all together. As is, it seems more like a bunch of ingredients that didn't want to play together.
One of the last savoury dishes we sample, a chickpea and octopus casserole presented in a gorgeous copper pot, tastes so fishy that I can barely get passed one bite. With so many mild flavours at play on this menu, what a shame the strongest one is so unappetizing!
Desserts pick up the pace, especially the dreamy chocolate pot de crème with pistachios and halvah nougat chips, and a cheery cherry clafoutis. Yet, ultimately, I couldn't help feeling this meal was too timid. Though the same chef was in the kitchen at my visits to both Su and Bar Bounya, this food was far less confident in its approach and result.
Which brings me back to the beginning of this review and the difficulty of opening a restaurant. Yes, the equation can be right, the planning can be sharp and the team behind the endeavour can be highly regarded. But ultimately a restaurant is focused not on its surroundings, but by what is on the plate. I see much potential here, yet feel this kitchen needs to play it bigger. This food has excellent "bang" potential, but right now it's too controlled, too safe, too pretty even.
Looking forward to the fireworks I'm certain this chef can deliver, I will gladly return … once this restaurant exhales.
Twitter: LesleyChestrman


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Quality metal construction and optics conforming to the universal standards (DIN) for microscopes makes this reliable scope a great value – with a modern new LED light system.
- Variable intensity 5.5V LED cool illumination system
- Built-in rechargeable battery with detachable AC power cord
- 10X Eyepiece with scale pointer
- Monocular head rotatable 360°
- 3 DIN Achromatic parfocal and parcentered Objectives 4X, 10X, & 40X
- Total magnification 40X to 400X
- Coaxial coarse & fine focusing
- Disc Diaphragm
- Vinyl dust cover, spare bulb.
- CE Certified
Advantages of LED illumination:
- Life time of LED bulb is 100,000 hours
- LED consumes very little power
- Fully charged battery provides up to 15 hours of normal use
- Versatile power allows cordless use for portability
- Cool LED prevents focus deviation caused by heat-deformed equipment
One Year Warranty: The manufacturer warrants each instrument to be free from defects in material and workmanship under normal use. It does not cover damage resulting from abuse or misuse, repairs, or alterations performed by other than authorized repair technicians, or damage occurring in transit.


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CMU Women's Basketball Headed to National Tournament
KANSAS CITY -- For the first time in school history, Central Methodist will compete for the NAIA Division I Women's Basketball National Championship.
The 32-team field for the 33rd annual event was unveiled Wednesday, and the Eagles will battle defending national champion Oklahoma City (26-3) in the First Round.
The Eagles are making their first trip to a National Championship since the 1999-2000 season when they were a member of NAIA Division II.
The 32-team, single elimination format will take place from March 13 - 19 in the Frankfort Convention Center in Frankfort, Ky.
The Eagles (25-7) earned a No. 8 seed in the Fourth Quadrant and will battle the No. 1-seeded Stars (26-3) on Wednesday, March 13, at 12 a.m.
Central Methodist qualified for the 2013 National Championship as an at-large team. The Eagles were the 13th of 14 teams to receive an at-large bid and the third team out of the Heart of America Athletic Conference to reach the tournament behind MidAmerica Nazarene and Benedictine.


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Along with the rest of the world, the pharmaceutical industry anxiously awaits the resolution of Brexit. Their nervous anticipation is for good reason; the past few years after the UK's vote ... (more)
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So You Say You Want a Soul Mate …
Chastity educator Jason Evert offers his advice on finding the right one.
Jason Evert, one of the nation's best known and most successful Catholic chastity education speakers, is releasing a new book, How to Find Your Soul Mate Without Losing Your Soul.
The book, five years in the making, is a compilation of advice he has offered to young women to help them navigate their single years. It is the first book Evert has co-authored with his wife, Crystalina.
In 13 years of chastity speaking, more than a million teens have heard Evert present and defend the Church's teachings on sexuality, marriage and family-life issues. The experience has been life-changing for many, including Khymanie Usher, a 19-year-old college student at the University of Belize.
Six years ago, Usher had just started at Pallotti High, a Catholic school in Belize City. It was a transitional time in her life, and she was struggling. She recalled, "I really had low self-esteem. I was depressed a lot. I didn't have any kind of respect for myself, especially in how I dressed. My religion wasn't a major part of my life."
There was conflict in her home, as her parents often argued, and she wondered if having a boyfriend might make her happy.
Evert was invited to her school to give a presentation. His talk of just over an hour had a transformational effect on her. She remarked, "I sat in the auditorium at school, and right there I changed my way of thinking and how I saw myself. For the first time I realized that I didn't deserve what I was putting myself through. I took everything that he said to heart, and I'm a totally different person now. I'm closer to God. I'm more focused on the things that really matter to me, and I'm in no rush to be in a relationship. And I am totally committed to waiting [for sex] until I'm married."
Usher especially remembers Evert sharing the testimony of Crystalina, then his new wife, who after three promiscuous years as a teen embraced chastity. Usher said, "Hearing what he said about her and how much she turned her life around gave me a new sense of confidence — that I did not need to stay where I was."
Today, Usher is living a much more contented life, is a committed Catholic and calls Jason and Crystalina Evert her role models.
Chastity Is Not a Negative
Evert is excited to have played a role in Usher's transformation.
"I love what I do," he said. "I would pay to do it. One of the joys of my apostolate is to get e-mails from young people like Khymanie who tell me they've remained pure years after they heard me talk."
Evert is an apologist on the staff of Catholic Answers in San Diego whose special focus is talking to young people about the virtue of chastity. He travels extensively in the United States and abroad, spreading the message of chastity. As he puts it on his website: "Romance without regret does exist. But if you want the real thing, be prepared to sacrifice. Only then will you see that the peace and joy that comes from chastity is worth more than all the pleasure in the world."
Mary-Louise Kurey, herself a chastity-education speaker who served for seven years as director of the Archdiocese of Chicago's Respect Life Office, invited him annually to address the archdiocese's high-school students.
"He's truly the best chastity-education presenter I've ever seen," she said. "He shares with the students a vision of a better kind of love, the kind of love that God calls us to live in chastity."
Kurey has observed firsthand how students, after hearing his presentations, come up to him to hand him packages of birth control pills and Playboy memorabilia and request that he remove them from their lives, as they wish to make a new beginning in a life of chastity.
Evert, 35, grew up in Scottsdale, Ariz., where he was active in the Life Teen movement. He attended the Franciscan University of Steubenville and volunteered as a sidewalk counselor in front of abortion businesses. These two experiences would lead him down his career path.
In Life Teen, he led retreats and met teens losing their Catholic faith over issues related to sexuality. At the abortion facilities, he said, "I'd meet women 30 minutes away from having abortions. I'd think, Why couldn't I have met them six months before?' It impressed on me the importance and urgency in teaching the virtue of chastity."
An internship at Catholic Answers led to an offer of a full-time job as an apologist, which would develop into his chastity ministry. In addition to his wife, three other chastity speakers are part of his apostolate.
Central to Evert's message is that chastity is not a negative, a mere repression of sexual desire, but a positive. Chastity comes from the will and is motivated by a desire to love. The unmarried man who loves his girlfriend will find a creative outlet for his sexual energy (e.g. bringing her flowers, writing her notes, washing her car, carrying her bag), which will deepen intimacy in a healthy way. Chastity helps people to fall in love and marry for the right reason; whereas premarital sex can cloud the judgments of unmarried couples.
Evert shares with his audiences a variety of statistics to support his arguments, such as that virgins who marry have a 70% lower divorce rate than those who are not, and people who practice chastity before marriage have higher rates of fidelity within marriage.
Evert commented, "Chastity frees us to love. We're not in the relationship for taking, but for giving."
Universal Problem
Chastity is more than just not having sex, Evert believes, but is part of one's lifestyle. This includes the way one dresses and talks and the entertainment one views. Pornography quickly destroys the virtue of chastity, particularly in men. Evert said, "No one comprehends how widespread pornography is. Boys are becoming addicted to it in the eighth grade and begin to act out what they see."
A pornography addiction prevents a man from having a godly and successful marriage, Evert believes, with divorce the common result. It also prevents him from hearing the call to the priesthood or religious life.
Matthew Fradd of Australia was 22 and thought himself a practicing Catholic despite having an addiction to porn. A female friend gave him a "Romance Without Regret" CD by Evert. Fradd said, "I remember thinking that there was no way Jason was Catholic because he was too cool."
For the first time, the Church's message of chastity made sense to Fradd. He noted, "Jason's talk was different than other chastity talks I'd heard. It wasn't about guilt or shame. It was about the real demands of authentic love."
Fradd resolved to change his life and the way he viewed sex. Today, at age 27, he lives in Ottawa, Ontario, and is employed by NET Ministries running an anti-pornography website. He stays in regular communication with Evert. He also married Cameron, the woman who first gave him the Evert CD, and they have two children.
In his 13-year apostolate, Evert has discovered that the struggle against sexual sin is universal. In whatever part of the world he visits, and whatever the socioeconomic status of his audiences, "all the kids are going through the same stuff."
He has also been amazed by the receptivity of youth to his message; he asserts that he has never had a disrespectful audience. Evert always stays after his presentations to talk one-on-one with teens — sometimes staying up to seven hours — and recalls one group of boys who brought condoms to the assembly to throw at him. After listening to Evert, though, they had a change of heart and listened attentively, thanking him afterwards.
Evert is busy at home, as his wife recently gave birth to the couple's fourth child. However, he is looking to expand his apostolate.
"I want to find ways to grow," he concluded. "As Pope John Paul II suggested, we want to use modern communications technology to reach out to every teen in the world with the Catholic Church's message of chastity."
Register correspondent Jim Graves writes from Newport Beach, California.


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Oklahoma is not the only play enjoying a return visit this season. Constellation Theatre Company is bringing back Ramayana based on Indian mythology, which played to sold out houses at Source last year. The production, which will open a three-week run on Aug. 4, will reassemble half the cast and have the welcome addition of Matthew McGloin, who charmed in On the Razzle, playing the monkey Hanuman. On July 11, Constellation's Artistic Director Allison Stockman presided over a design presentation introducing new and old members of the ensemble and showcasing Kendra Rai's stunning costumes and two-time Helen Hayes Award winner Tom Teasley's onstage music. Guests then mingled at a wine and cheese reception.
Home Arts & Society Social Scene Constellation Stage Design Preview of Ramayana


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ATLANTA — Turner Entertainment Networks president Steve Koonin is joining the Atlanta Hawks ownership group, which hopes he can raise the profile of an NBA team that has struggled to draw fans or lure big-name free agents.
The Hawks announced late Sunday that Koonin would take an ownership stake, serve as chief executive officer, oversee all business operations and represent the ownership at league functions.
Koonin comes to the Hawks after 14 years with Turner Entertainment Networks, where in his most recent role he led the division that included TNT, TBS, TruTV and Turner Classic Movies. He previously spent more than a decade as a marketing executive at Coca-Cola.
"Steve Koonin's reputation as a game changer in both marketing and media makes him the ideal leader to usher the Atlanta Hawks into a new era," said Bruce Levenson, the team's majority owner. "He has created a legacy as an expert in sports marketing, television, branding and digital media."
The Hawks clinched their seventh straight playoff appearance this past weekend but perennially rank among the worst teams in attendance.
The team is hoping Koonin can change that after his stint at Turner, where he was involved in programming and media rights acquisition with both the NBA and the NCAA. At Coca-Cola, he served as vice president of sports and entertainment marketing.
Koonin is a lifelong resident of Atlanta, headquarters of Turner and Coca-Cola.
"My family has been a part of this city for nearly a century," Koonin said in a statement. "We have a lot of work to do, but I believe my professional experience, my passion for this team and the NBA, as well as the Hawks' great existing executive talent ... make this organization's future very bright."
Under general manager Danny Ferry and first-year coach Mike Budenholzer, the Hawks are in the midst of a major rebuilding effort. Only two players, center Al Horford and point guard Jeff Teague, have been with the team longer than two years — and Horford missed most of this season with an injury.
Koonin's focus will be off the court. Heading into its final home game Monday night, the Hawks were averaging crowds of 14,400 a game — 28th out of 30 NBA teams. The actual turnouts are generally much lower, with thousands of empty seats a trademark of games at Philips Arena, where capacity was actually reduced by curtaining a section of seats at the top of the upper deck.
Over the past decade, the team has never ranked higher than 18th in attendance and is largely overlooked in a market that also has the NFL, Major League Baseball and a passion for college football.
"I have known Steve for more than two decades and based both on firsthand experience and his stellar record of accomplishments," NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said. "He is one of the very best executives and creative minds in the entertainment industry."